Today the US Census Bureau put the spotlight on a recent report published by the USDA regarding food insecurity. Building on this, the following map uses information from the USDA report to depict the relative food insecurity among the lower forty-eight, with a slight focus on Kansas and Missouri.
The US Census Bureau announced yesterday findings from their 2010 Annual Surveys of State and Local Government Finances.
The press release contained three summary maps from the annual survey that compared state revenues from property taxes and state expenditures on education and welfare. A snapshot of these maps, and some simple extractions showing how Kansas and Missouri ranked in these areas follows.
Percent of Total State and Local Government Expenditures on Education: 2010, Source US Census Bureau
The Kansas City Star used the newly released American Community Survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau to report the downward trend in median household income for KC metro counties.
A map showing the center points constructed from 2010 census blocks within Kansas City, Missouri. The block points loosely follow the pattern of population density within Kansas City. 
The same map as above, but with a regular grid of polygons added to it along with a few labels for the cities enveloped by Kansas City.
In this map, the population values have been transferred from the block points to the grid cells, totaled for each cell, and the cells symbolized by total population. The result is a generalized map of population density.
The cells from the above map extruded and color coded by total population and observed from a southeast perspective.
The 3-D view of population observed from a southwest perspective.
The look at income variations across Greater Kansas City continues with these five depictions of median household income constructed using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006-2010 American Community Survey.
Map 1: A map of median household income across Greater Kansas City. The area units used for the map are census tracts. Darker shades represent tracts with lower incomes; lighter shades represent tracts with higher incomes.
Map 2: Median household income across Greater KC represented with a raster surface interpolated from the census tract data used in Map 1.
This map emphasizes the overall pattern of nine income categories and the transitions between them. Greens are low-income areas; yellows and oranges are middle-income areas; reds and whites are zones of high income.
Map 3: This map uses the same data as the previous, but employs a different application of color to emphasize the relative intensity between high and low income areas. Areas with the lowest median household incomes are assigned the deepest reds; areas with the highest incomes are colored with the deepest greens.
Map 4: A 3-D depiction of income with high-income areas extruded. The green peak near the center of the region is the Plaza-Mission Hills-Brookside area which is connected by a ridge to another high-income peak in the southeastern portion of Johnson County. The two other major summit areas in this map include northwest Johnson County (which includes portions of Shawnee, west Lenexa, and northwest Olathe), and a portion of KCMO in Clay County just west of the City of Liberty.
Map 5: A 3-D depiction of income with low-income areas extruded. The large summit region in the middle of the map includes downtown KCK and the central to east-central portions of KCMO. A wide ridge of low income follows US Highway-71 south through KCMO out to the Cass county line. A second, and narrower, ridge of relatively low income extends southwest along I-35 between two prominent areas of high income in Johnson County.
Last March, the Kansas City Business Journal picked up on Esri’s demographic data and used it to identify the ten wealthiest ZIP codes in the metro. Wealth in this case is not defined strictly by income, but rather, by a combination of several factors. These affluent ZIP codes are shown in the following map.
Thank you Business Journal. Anyone for tennis?
What about areas with the least amount of “wealth”?
The map below shows the ten census tracts with the highest percentage of poverty.
Generally speaking, the maps show that the most-wealthy among us tend to live in Johnson County along state line, with a few pockets of high wealth near the plaza, west of Lenexa, and the lakes area of central Jackson County. The poorest among us are mostly clustered in and around downtown KCK, across the river east and southeast of downtown KCMO, and in the southeast KCMO around the area of the Bannister Complex.
The two maps show—again, in a general way—where wealth and poverty have settled in across the region. Direct comparisons of the maps is not recommended because one uses ZIPs as the area units, and the other census tracts. Still, you can reasonably conclude from them that wealth is mostly south and suburban, and poverty is mostly central and urban. No surprise, really.
A Census Bureau press release from Friday, April 13th:
“Historical Migration of the Young, Single, and College Educated: 1965 to 2000 — Analyzes the growth of this group and compares their migration destinations with those of other segments of this age group and with the general population. Specifically examines decennial census results from 1970 to 2000 to determine how likely this group was to have changed residences in the five years preceding each census.”
Within the report both Kansas and Missouri are categorized on the map as a “consistent decliner” with respect to the net migration of the young, single, and college-educated population between 1965-2000.
Image Source: “Historical Migration of the Young, Single, and College Educated: 1965 to 2000”, U.S. Census Bureau, April 2012.
Source: Mid-America Regional Council
A map series posted by MARC depicting demographic changes in Greater Kansas City from 2000 to 2010 (refresh your browser if maps don’t initially draw).
KC MAPPING & GIS 